12/17/2007

This was sent to us by "Mr. Klaatu," a writer well-known to anyone who spends time in our comments section. -JA

The AMPTP has put out a new ad featuring a new message: “Different Assets… Different Businesses… Different Companies… One Common Goal.” It is signed by the CEOs of Fox, Paramount, Disney, Sony, Warner Bros., CBS, MGM, and NBC Universal – or what we have come to know as the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

But the AMPTP’s “About Us” web page claims their membership is made up of “over 350 motion picture and television producers.” In fact, there is a clickable list of 397 companies the AMPTP claims to be representing in the current negotiations.

So, who are the other 389 companies? I decided to do a little digging.

Some of them are owned by those eight mega-corporations – Touchstone is owned by Disney, Castle Rock is owned by Warner Bros., and, of course...

Some of the companies are owned by independent film producers – Arnold Rifkin (Live Free or Die Hard, 2007), Marc Abraham (Children of Men, 2006), and Lester Persky (Hair, 1979). Unfortunately, Lester Persky’s been dead since 2001. I’m not prepared to do that much digging.

There are also independent TV production companies like Bruce Nash Entertainment, LMNO Productions, and Andrew Solt Productions – all of whom produce reality shows and will benefit from the strike lasting as long as possible.

It may surprise you to learn that actors own companies in the AMPTP. Billy Crystal and Pee Wee Herman are in there. Directors too. Even… WGA members! Barry Kemp, David Kelley, and many other writers are in the AMPTP. Even Stephen J. Cannell, whose very logo featured him furiously typing a script at his typewriter (ah, the memories) is in the AMPTP.

But that’s not all. There’s WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) Films. I’d suggest we picket their offices, but I really don’t want to be hit with a folding chair.

Then there are the real powers behind the alliance: HSUS, DSF, and Menno-Hof. What, you’ve never heard of these puppet masters? They are, respectively, the Humane Society of the United States (“the nation's largest and most effective animal protection organization”), the Disciples Seminary Foundation (“a unique, cooperative institution that collaborates with seminaries, churches, regions, and conferences on the Pacific Slope to provide exceptional theological education and resources for growth in faith”), and last but not least, the Mennonite Anabaptist Information Center (“a non-profit information center that teaches visitors about the faith and life of Amish and Mennonites, located in Shipshewana, Indiana”). That’s right, the Amish. We’re doomed. They don’t care if the strike ever ends... they don’t own TVs.

Once I found out who we’re up against, I couldn’t help but wonder: Do these producers, directors, writers, professional wrestlers, dead guys, animal lovers, Disciples of Christ, Amish folk, and Pee Wee Herman really share the “One Common Goal” of their media mogul brethren? I called a few of them to ask how often they’d been consulted on what to offer the writers, or been invited to meetings, or been given a vote on key issues since the "negotiations" with the WGA began. The ones I spoke to all told me they have not once been contacted by the Alliance or Nick Counter since all this began.

yeah surprise surprise. make a dealw ith everyone on that list bar the big eight independently, seeing as they weren't invited to the party, and see if we cant make them the next FOX or NBC, but somewhat nicer of course!

Wow! I'm sure the many, many "represented" are going to be very surprised that they've signed on to the AMPTP's bag of tricks.

Perhaps those who DO NOT agree with the AMPTP's position can, themselves, take out a full page ad to refute the idea that they're all in agreement.

It's just so much more business as usual for the AMPTP to claim they have several hundred companies interests at heart when most of those same companies are OWNED by the big congloms at the table! Figures. Looks good on paper tho and the AMPTP is ALL about looking good on paper.

A minor point of correction...only *Old Order* Mennonites and Amish do not watch TVs or go to movies...they are in the minority of Anabaptists. Most Anabaptists (Church of the Brethren, Mennonite and Amish to name but three different sects) consume some mainstream media, have TVs at home, drive cars, shop where everyone else does and are hooked to the electrical grid. But I can see where they would want their own production company that produces entertainments with a more religious flavor specifically tailored to their beliefs and am not surprised to see that they signed on with the AMPTP (although I think the WGA could convince them to defect given the general uncharitable stance of the Alliance of late).

I don't think you meant to insult the vast majority of Anabaptists (several thousand of whom are my neighbors here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and only maybe a thousand or two tops are Old Order Mennonites), but I though you could use a little schooling into how their beliefs break down.

Just throwing this out, but would it make sense for WGA members who own companies represented by the AMPTP to demand that their interests be represented or withdraw their membership? Try talking to the actors' and directors' companies? Make Pee Wee the spokesperson of this movement?

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